Gangsters and GoodFellas

I just finished reading the book Gangsters and GoodFellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run by Henry Hill as told to Gus Russo. The book was more or less a follow-up to the book Wiseguy, a 1986 New York Times National Bestseller by Nicholas Pileggi, which detailed the rise and fall of New York gangster Henry Hill (which of course was the basis for Martin Scorsese's 1990 film, GoodFellas). Not as intriguing as Wiseguy or GoodFellas, the book still provided some fascinating details that were left out of both works. Here are a couple of them:

1. Tommy DeSimone's killer is ... - Most of us remember Tommy DeSimone because of Joe Pesci's outstanding Academy Award winning portrayal of the gangster. In the movie, we never found out who ended up whacking Tommy. However, Henry Hill explains that Tommy's killer was none other than the legendary John Gotti. Hill also elucidates that Paulie Vario (played by Paul Sorvino in the film) really hated Tommy but put up with him because Jimmy Burke (played by Robert De Niro in the film) loved him. And finally, we learned that Paulie was actually sleeping with Henry's wife, Karen, and that Tommy tried to rape Karen when Henry was in prison.

2. Hill's relationship with Joe Namath - Hill details in the book how he met and knew New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. They met because Hill was sleeping with a girl who was friends with a girl who was sleeping with Joe Namath (we shouldn't be surprised that Namath was sleeping with a lot of women, should we?). Joe Namath also gave him tickets to attend SuperBowl III down in Miami. It also mentions in the book that Namath told Hill "to bet the fucking ranch" on the Jets, who were 17 point underdogs against the Baltimore Colts. Hill ended up putting $30,000 on the Jets. And of course, the Jets ended up winning the game 16-7.

I do recommend the book (I guess I have to, I don't want to get whacked) if you are interested in crime or the gangster lifestyle. You may want to read Wiseguy or see GoodFellas first though.